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Screening in Denmark
Denmark invites by Digital Post rather than paper. Breast screening runs 50–69, cervical screening 23–64 with a longer interval after 50, and bowel screening 50–74.
This page describes screening programmes; it is not a diagnosis, not a personal risk assessment and not a substitute for your own health service. Age bands are set nationally and change — the invitation you receive, and the body named on your country page, outrank anything written here. Screening is for people without symptoms: a new lump, blood you can see, a mole that has changed, unexplained weight loss or a sudden change in vision or hearing needs a clinician now, whatever a recent screening result said.
The programmes
| Programme | Who | Age band and interval | Test | How it reaches you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breast cancer screening (mammography) | Women | 50–69, every 2 years | Mammography | Invitation |
| Cervical screening (HPV test) | Women | 23–49, every 3 years | Cell sample | Invitation |
| Cervical screening (HPV test) | Women | 50–64, every 5 years | HPV-based | Invitation |
| Bowel cancer screening (stool test) | Everyone | 50–74, every 2 years | Faecal immunochemical test | Invitation |
The invitation is digital by default
Denmark’s screening invitations arrive in Digital Post, the mandatory public digital mailbox, unless you hold an exemption. That removes the wrong-address problem that dogs paper systems and replaces it with a different one: an invitation sitting unread in a mailbox you only open when you expect a tax letter. If you are the sort of person who checks Digital Post twice a year, set a reminder around the birthday that makes you due — the timeline on this page will tell you which one that is.
Breast screening
Women aged 50 to 69 have been offered mammography roughly every two years since the programme went national in 2009. The pattern is the familiar European one: two views per breast, double reading, a small proportion called back for extra imaging, and most of those call-backs resolving with no cancer found. Denmark publishes programme results annually through the health authority.
Cervical screening and the HPV switch
The cervical programme covers women from 23 to 64. The interval is shorter in the younger years and longer from 50, and samples from women aged 30 and over are analysed for HPV rather than being read only for cell changes — the same shift towards virus testing that Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Latvia have all made, at slightly different paces and with slightly different age boundaries. A longer interval on an HPV test is not less screening; a negative virus test rules out risk for longer than a negative smear ever could.
Bowel screening
Since 2014 everyone aged 50 to 74 has been offered a faecal immunochemical test every two years. The kit arrives with the invitation, the sample is taken at home from a single bowel movement and posted, and a positive result leads to a colonoscopy appointment. Denmark started earlier than most of its neighbours, which is why Danish figures often appear in discussions of what a mature bowel programme actually achieves.
Age by age
The same table again, turned around: every age at which something falls due, so you can find your own and read across. This is rendered on the server, so it works whether or not the calculator below does.
Women: the age ladder
| Age | What is due |
|---|---|
| 23 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 26 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 29 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 32 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 35 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 38 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 41 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 44 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 47 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — Cell sample |
| 50 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Cervical screening (HPV test) — HPV-based; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 52 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 54 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 55 | Cervical screening (HPV test) — HPV-based |
| 56 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 58 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 60 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Cervical screening (HPV test) — HPV-based; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 62 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 64 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 66 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 68 | Breast cancer screening (mammography) — Mammography; Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 70 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 72 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 74 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
Men: the age ladder
| Age | What is due |
|---|---|
| 50 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 52 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 54 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 56 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 58 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 60 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 62 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 64 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 66 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 68 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 70 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 72 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
| 74 | Bowel cancer screening (stool test) — Faecal immunochemical test |
Where an interval is set regionally, only the age the band opens is listed — the country’s own body publishes the repeat interval. Ages are the age you reach in the calendar year, because target groups across the region are built from birth years rather than birth dates.
Work out your own years
Your own timeline
Enter a birth year and the table below fills in with every invitation that country expects to send you, and the calendar year each one is due. Nothing is sent anywhere — the whole calculation happens in this page.
JavaScript is off, so the timeline is not calculated here. The age ladders on each country page below are the same information rendered on the server — find your age and read across.
The calendar file contains one all-day reminder per invitation, in the month you were born, for the years still ahead. It is a prompt to expect a letter, not the letter itself.
Sources: Sundhedsstyrelsen (Danish Health Authority) — national cancer screening programmes · checked 2026-09-07
Häufige Fragen
How does the screening invitation arrive in Denmark?
Through Digital Post, the public digital mailbox, unless you hold an exemption from it. There is no paper letter to look out for, so it is worth checking the mailbox around the birthday that makes you due.
Which ages are invited to bowel screening in Denmark?
Everyone aged 50 to 74, every two years, with a faecal immunochemical test kit sent out with the invitation. The programme has run since 2014.
What is the age range for cervical screening in Denmark?
Women aged 23 to 64. The interval is shorter in the younger years and longer from 50, and samples from women aged 30 and over are analysed for HPV.
When did Danish breast screening go national?
In 2009. Women aged 50 to 69 are offered mammography roughly every two years, with images read by two independent readers.
The tests you will be invited to
Breast cancer screening (mammography)
An X-ray of each breast, read by two radiologists, repeated every two years across a band of ages that starts at 40 in Sweden and 50 almost everywhere else. What it finds, what it misses and what a call-back means.
Cervical screening (HPV test)
Almost every country in the region has switched from looking for abnormal cells to looking for the virus that causes them. The test is better, so the gap between tests is longer — and in several countries you can now take the sample yourself.
Bowel cancer screening (stool test)
A sample from one bowel movement, taken at home and posted. It is the only screening programme in the region that routinely prevents cancers rather than only finding them early — because the follow-up removes the polyp.
The other countries
Age bands differ across the region by up to a decade for the same programme, so a comparison is genuinely useful — particularly if you have moved, or if family live elsewhere.
Estonia · Finland · Latvia · Lithuania · Sweden · Norway
The whole regional tableHow invitations work
Between the letters, keep your own record
A screening invitation arrives every few years. TempoLife keeps the rest — weight, blood pressure, sleep and the notes you want to find again — so the next appointment starts with facts rather than guesses.